Thursday, October 10, 2013

2013 Dylan Thomas Prize - the best in young English language writing

Dylan Thomas Prize is an international literary award that celebrates the best in young English language writing (writers under 30) in an effort for foster and promote young talent. This year's nominees in the novel and short story categories are:NovelsThe Last King of Lydia (M)
by Tim Leach

"A defeated king stands on top of a pyre. His conqueror, the Persian
ruler Cyrus, signals to his guards; they step forward and touch flaming
torches to the dry wood. Croesus, once the wealthiest man of the ancient
world, is to be burned alive. As he watches the flames catch, Croesus
thinks back over his life. He remembers the time he asked the old
Athenian philosopher, Solon, who was the happiest man in the world.
Croesus used to think it was him. But then all his riches could not
remove the spear from his dying elder son's chest; could not bring his
mute younger son to speak; could not make him as wise as his own chief
slave; could not bring his wife's love back; could not prevent his army
from being torn apart and his kingdom lost. As the old philosopher had
replied, a man's happiness can only be measured when he is dead. The
first coils of smoke wrap around Croesus' neck like a noose... " publisher

"Jo returns to South Africa after ten years in the UK to cover the riots
sweeping the Jo'burg township of Alex. Nico, her estranged Afrikaner
father, reappears and asks her to help prove his innocence in the murder
of a black man, abducted by the security forces decades earlier. As
they set off on a road trip through South Africa's now-unfamiliar
landscape, it becomes clear that Nico knows more about the murder than
he is letting on, and Jo begins to wonder whether she is his accomplice,
or his captive. Set against the backdrop of a country struggling to
absorb its bloody history and forge a new democracy, Call It Dog asks
whether justice and truth are more important than the bonds of loyalty
and love, and explores what is it like to feel you no longer belong in
the land of your birth - or to your own family." publisher

"When the rebels come to Obinna's village, they do more than wreak terror
for one night. Lining the children up in the middle of the village,
they measure them against the height of an AK-47. Those who are shorter
than the gun are left behind. Those who are taller are taken. Obinna and
his older brother Akot find themselves the rebel army's newest
recruits. But while Akot almost willingly surrenders to
the training, Obinna resists, determined not to be warped by the
revolution's slogans and violence. In the face of his vicious captain's
determination to break him, Obinna finds help in a soldier called
Priest, and in the power of his own dreams. Beneath the
Darkening Sky describes a life unimaginably different from our own, but
one that is the experience of tens of thousands of child soldiers.
Uncompromising, vivid and raw, it is an astonishing portrait of a mind
trying to make sense of a senseless world." publisher

"In each of these ten unforgettable stories, Claire Vaye Watkins writes
her way fearlessly into the mythology of the American West, utterly
reimagining it. Her characters orbit around the region's vast spaces,
winning redemption despite - and often because of - the hardship and
violence they endure. The arrival of a foreigner transforms the exchange
of eroticism and emotion at a prostitution ranch. A prospecting hermit
discovers the limits of his rugged individualism when he tries to rescue
an abused teenager. Decades after she led her best friend into a
degrading encounter in a Vegas hotel room, a woman feels the aftershock.
Most bravely of all, Watkins takes on – and reinvents – her own
troubled legacy in a story that emerges from the mayhem and destruction
of Helter Skelter. Arcing from the sweeping and sublime to the minute
and personal, from Gold Rush to ghost town to desert to brothel, the
collection echoes not only in its title but also in its fierce,
undefeated spirit the motto of her home state." publisher

"A Hindu religious festival in Darjeeling brings with it a sacrifice; a
Nepali-Bhutanese refugee pins her hopes on the West; a Kalimpong
shopkeeper faces an impossible dilemma; a Gurkha’s daughter tries to
comprehend her father’s complaints. These are just some of the
stories describing and dramatizing the experiences of both the Nepalese
people and the Nepalese diaspora—the people whose culture and language
is Nepalese but who are dispersed to India, Bhutan and beyond. From
every perspective and on every page, Prajwal Parajuly blends rich
colour and vernacular to paint an eye-opening picture of a unique world
and its people." publisher

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